Title

Rot or not

Broad Question

Does homemade or fast food rot?

Specific Question

Does mold grow on homemade burgers or fast food burgers?

Hypothesis

The homemade burger will have the most mold and the fast food burger would not have any mold.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

The type of burger

Dependent Variable:

How long both of the burgers rots

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Container with see-through lid (no cost)
a fast food burger (Mcdonald) (burger only, no other ingredients) Quarter pound $1.00
a homemade burger/ meat (to make) From Hannaford (Hannaford brand) Quarter pound $2.49 Per pound
stove (no cost)
heat (No cost)
Pan (no cost)
Spatula (no cost)
Car (gas) (no cost)
Money $3.49
Camera (Fujifilm) (no cost)
greenhouse (no cost)
computer (to put a grid on it) (HP windows 7) (no cost)

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Greenhouse- a building that grows plants.

Mold- rotting items.

Marinated- soaked, stayed in.

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General Plan

In the experiment, it will be tested on which burger, homemade or fast food, will mold grow fastest? A burger will be bought at a fast food restaurant and a burger will be made at home using store bought red meat. Both of the burgers will be placed together in a see-through container for 2 weeks. The burgers will be photographed each day for 14 days. At the end of the experiment those photos will be loaded on the computer into a photo editing software to place millimeter squared graphs on top of the photos. The photos will be printed out and the number of millimeter squares that have mold on it will be counted. The conclusion will be to see which burger has the most mold (if any) on it.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

Safety Concern: If someone ate both of the burgers, they could get sick.
Safety Concern: Animals (pets) could eat it and get sick from it.
Environmental Concern: The stink from the burgers may effect the air.

Experimental Design

Comparative Study

Number Of Comparison Samples:

2

Number Of Observation In Each Sample:

14

When data will be collected

Friday 2nd, March through Thursday 15th, March

Where will data be collected?:

Home (Greenhouse)

Resources and Budget Table

Data Table

Time Line

Friday 2nd, March - Complete design and collect all materials (home)
Friday 2nd, March - Buy McDonald’s burger and make homemade burger. (home)
Friday 2nd, March - Run a test of the set up to see if it works, if it does begin experiment. (home)
Friday 2nd, March through Thursday 15th, March - Run official test collect first data, Take a picture of burgers everyday. (home)
Thursday 15th, March - Complete trials and all data collection. (home)
Sunday 18th, March - Complete all data analysis ; Count mold growth on each picture, mean, median, range, graphs (home/jbes)
Monday 26th, March - Complete results and conclusions write up (home/jbes)

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Background Research

“ate home made hamburgers one night, beef taco's the next night and stake the next night.

It seemed to them that the food they were eating was not much better than eating at McDonald's.”


The (homemade) burgers are 100% beef, not a bunch of fillers, and a higher grade with less fat. And the GF drains off the extra grease, unlike most fast food chains that let the burgers marinated in their own grease.

Well a homemade burger is much better as you have complete control over what all gets added to the meat.

References

__http://www.csun.edu/scied/2-longitudinal/long_research/index.htm__
__http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6233455__
__http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110328190038AAPIH0W__
__http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/24/is-the-value-menu-really-a-value-comparing-the-homemade-double-cheeseburger-to-the-mcdonalds-1-version/__

Detailed Procedure

1. Go to car and buy a regular burger from Mcdonald’s
2. Go home and make homemade regular burger
3. Put both burgers in container and put on see-through lid
4. Place container on table in greenhouse
5. Take a picture of the burgers through the top of the container
6. The next day, take a picture of it
7. The next day, take a picture of it
8. Keep repeating this until it’s been two weeks
9. Put pictures on computer
10. Put millimeter squared grid on picture (using computer with a photo editing program)
11. Measure out the area of the mold (If any)

Diagram

Photo List

Empty container
Burgers on first day
Burgers on second day
Burgers on third day
Burgers on fourth day
Burgers on fifth day
Burgers on sixth day
Burgers on seventh day
Burgers on eighth day
Burgers on ninth day
Burgers on tenth day
Burgers on eleventh day
Burgers on twelfth day
Burgers on thirteenth day
Burgers on fourteenth day

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Results

In the experiment about if either homemade or fast food rots more, the data showed that the first three days nothing happened. Then it was found on the fourth day, that they both started to get mold. The mold started to grow a little each day. The chosen fast food and homemade was hamburgers. The fast food burger was the one that molded more than the homemade burger. The homemade started out, at first, to mold more but as time went on the fast food started to grow more mold.

All Raw Data

Graphs

Photos

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Hamburger condensation

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Data Analysis

Conclusion

The experiment was which one would rot more? Fast food or homemade? The independent variable was the type of burgers it was. The two types were: fast food and homemade. The dependent variable was how long both of the burgers rot for. It was decided on 14 days. The question to the experiment was answered. It was found that fast food rotted more than homemade. At first, homemade seem to look like the one who was rotting more. In the end, fast food started to rot more.

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Discussion

The experiment that was tested was ”Does mold grow on homemade burgers or fast food burgers?”. It was answered that both burgers did grow mold but fast food burgers grew the most mold. The evidence to prove it was that there was actual mold on it. Although, in the beginning of the experiment the homemade burger had more mold on it, even though it looked like it had less. The fast food burger had different colored molds on it. The colors were, black, white, green, and gray. The homemade only had a light brown colored mold. It molded very differently from the fast food though. The fast food looked like it had fur for mold. The homemade had a mold that looked like it was a layer of skin. It’s hard to describe what it looked like.
The hypothesis was surprisingly wrong. From research, more people thought fast food will never rot. So from that research, the hypothesis was “The homemade burger will have the most mold and the fast food burger would not have any mold.”. It was strange to find out the information. Although, from research, most people said that fast food didn’t rot. There is actually an experiment like this one. It’s been going for twelve years.
There weren’t real actual patterns in the experiment. It was just straight through.
There were a few problems. One of the problems were that the inside of the container, the sun was shining on the container/burgers so making it produce condensation. Making it hard to see the inside of the container, forcing to open the container and letting the bad smelling odor come out. Other than that there weren’t other problems.
The information found actually improved the hypothesis, even though the hypothesis was wrong. The information increased the knowledge of how things mold. Technology wasn’t used that much in the experiment, the only technology that is mentionable was the camera. The camera helped by taking pictures of the burgers.
At the end of the experiment, both of the burgers were thrown out to the animals. Although, the strange thing was that the animals (raccoons) took the homemade burger and not the fast food burger.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

The benefit of the experiment is that it shows that some fast food restaurants don’t put in chemicals that shouldn’t be in food. It also shows that some fast food restaurants burgers like homemade except for how they mold. They both had a different way of molding. Although, it also has the benefit of inspiring a person to do the same experiment because there has been experiments like this but with different results.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to see if either homemade or fast food burgers rot. Both were placed in a clear container and left out for a fortnight in a greenhouse. The dependent variable was how long they both rot for. The independent variable was the type of burger. The experiment question was, “Does mold grow on homemade burgers or fast food burgers?”. It was hypothesized that the fast food burger would not rot at all but the homemade burger would rot. The answer was that the fast food burger rotted the most while the homemade burger looked like it was going to have the most mold but only defeated by a little mold.